Hey
Guys; I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton
introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we
have in Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the
health care up here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend
and someone who lives with the Canada health care plan I thought I would
give you some facts about this great medical plan that we have in Canada.

First
of all:

1)
The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every
month of $96. for Shirley and me to be covered. Sounds great eh.
What they don't tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health
care system afloat. I am personally in the 55% tax bracket.
Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes. A large portion of that and I am
not sure of the exact amount goes directly to health care our #1 expense.

2)
I would not classify what we have as a health care plan, it is more
like a health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor
quick enough so he can tell you "yes indeed you are sick or you need
an operation" but now the challenge becomes getting treated or
operated on. We have waiting lists out the ying yang some as much as
2 years down the road.

3)
Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is to
prescribe drugs. Have a pain here is a drug to take---not what is
causing the pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is
more important to move as many patients thru as possible each hour for
Government reimbursement

4)
Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.

5)
Don't require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the
emergency room waiting for treatment.

6)
Shirley's dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it required
that his hand be put in a splint - to our surprise we had to pay $125. for
a splint because it is not covered under health care plus we have to pay
$60. for each visit for him to check it out each week.

7)
Shirley's cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on a
waiting list . Died before he could get treatment.

8)
Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no
more operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case
and embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.

9)The
Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are
increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get
shorter. Government just keeps throwing money at the problem but it
never goes away. But they are good at finding new ways to tax us,
but they don't call it a tax anymore it is now a user fee.

10)
My mother needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she is
a smoker they will not do it. Despite her and my father paying into
the health care system all these years. My Mom is 80 years of age.
Now there is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people
either because they are a drain on the health care system. Let me
see now, what we want in Canada is a health care system for healthy people
only. That should reduce our health care costs.

11)
Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.

12)
I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes, junk
food and anything else that could kill me but I am not allowed by law to
spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be
jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a hockey
player or athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go figger.
Where else in the world can you spend money to kill yourself but not
allowed to spend money to get healthy.

13)
Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at tax payer
expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no
premiums.

14)
Oh yeah we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them
healthy. Wouldn't want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and
stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into the
health care system have to pay for their needles because it is not covered
by the health care system.

I
send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the
states you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down
there and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to
make sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some
food for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this
subject.